Wham, Bam, Summerslam!

Summerslam took place on 15 August in Los Angeles

Up until the August 9 edition of Monday Night Raw, only three matches had been booked for Summerslam (SS), one of WWE's Big Four pay-per-views. It just goes to show that three weeks is far too short a time to promote such a high profile event. It also points to slack booking, which we've been seeing from WWE in recent times and saw throughout this PPV.

The Intercontinental Championship match between Dolph Ziggler and challenger Kofi Kingston was the curtain jerker. Kofi was trying to regain a title that he had only lost 9 days previously -- did anyone really believe that he was going to win? Answer: no. WWE made the same mistake at Fatal 4 Way. The Miz defended the US Title against R-Truth, whom he had just defeated for the belt on that week's Raw. Needless to say, Mike Mizanin retained on that occasion. I bring this up because you need to give fans a reason to buy a PPV in every match, not just the top two or three on the card.

On top of that, this match was just stale if you had seen any of their other bouts over the past month. So, why couldn't they just wait until SS to put the belt on Ziggler? There was a simple answer to that, as we were to find out. The match was reaching its climax when Kofi missed with Trouble In Paradise and Dolph slapped on the Sleeper Hold. At that moment, Nexus came out of nowhere, attacking them both. The faction of NXT Season 1 Rookies, in trying to make another impact in yet another 7-on-1 beat down, caused this encounter to end in a no contest. . .

Nexus gangs up on Kofi

Following that was the Divas Championship match between Melina and Alecia Fox. This was better than their dour meeting on last week's Raw, but it's too bad that not too many people care that Melina won her first title since returning from an injury that kept her out for a year. The celebrations were interrupted by the self-professed co-Women's Champions, Layla and Michelle McCool, who proceeded to hand her a harsh beating. Alecia will surely be handed a rematch, but a feud between the new Divas champion and the entertaining Laycool could be appealing. Then again, this is the WWE Diva's division, so let's not get our hopes up. . .

Melina

Next up was the 3-on-1 handicap match between the Straight Edge Society (SES) and the Big Show, which was hastily put together the week of the PPV. Once again, just more sloppy booking. I liked the match itself, but at the same time, there was no real reason for it to be on this card other than to fill time.

Show looked dominant from the beginning, before the SES ganged up on him and took the advantage. Inevitably, the World's Largest Athlete gained the double pin over Joey Mercury and Luke Gallows as CM Punk scuttled away from the ring with Serena. All im all, nothing special, but I did like it all the same.

It will be intriguing to see where Punk and the SES go from here. In all their time together they haven't done a whole lot other than shave a few peoples' heads. In recent promos, the Straight Edge Superstar has looked fantastic, but he hasn't been able to take his three cronies anywhere above where they already were. In the context of this match though, CM Punk played the cowardly heel masterfully I thought. This would set up a defection from the SES by it's members quite nicely in my estimation, with the possibility of a Punk-Gallows rivalry or something along those lines. I quite like the sound of that idea, but that begs the question, what do you do with Serena, Gallows and Mercury after then? I guess that's a bridge we'll have to cross when we reach it. . .

Big Show -- Paul White has been great as a face so far

The midway point of the night was marked by two promos, the first of which greeted us to the sight of Kane standing by an empty coffin. He was soon joined by Sheamus, who is continuing to show more and more confidence on-screen.

That was followed by The Miz in the ring, who cut a fantastic promo over his decision to join Team WWE for the main event or not. All I can say is, go look it up and watch it for yourself -- well worth seeing. I did think he was going to turn down the offer, the typical heel thing to do, but it set up the angle for the Daniel Bryan return later on in the show perfectly. . .

The Miz

In last week's article, "Making New Ground. Sort of.", I wrote that both Randy Orton and Sheamus needed a good match in their fight for the WWE Championship, but that Sheamus also badly needed a clean win here. If we look at his title matches, his first reign was won via an accidental fall through the table by John Cena, his Royal Rumble clash with Orton ended in a DQ, he regained the title at Fatal 4 Way after a run-in from The Nexus and retained it at Money In The Bank in almost identical circumstances. Add to that list a DQ loss to The Viper at SS.

Now, if you're trying to push a fresh, new champion as fearsome and powerful in the ring, then the last thing you do is hand him an unimpressive record such as the one I just listed. I was even enjoying this match up until the point where Sheamus shoved the ref when attempting to bring a chair in. He got an RKO on the announce table for his troubles, of course. I don't see The Celtic Warrior retaining the belt at Night Of Champion and I don't envisage anyone else believing he can either. If he can't get a win over an established headliner (such as Triple H, with whom he is expected to feud with in the near future), then he may slip away from being a fixture in the main event level altogether. . .

Sheamus -- Laoch (see trunks) is the Irish for "hero"

Possibly one of the most anticipated matches of the night was the World Heavyweight Championship contest between the holder Kane and Rey Mysterio, who was striving to prove his innocence (although I'm not sure how winning a match would do that). Once again, this was another good, solid bout that was marred by bad booking.

Rey competed well for the most part against the Big Red Machine, so in desperation Kane turned to the casket. On the first attempt, he failed to close the lid on Rey, who looked as if he would eventually find a way to overcome the odds. For once, however, the WWE's Biggest Little Man couldn't find a way past a devastating Chokeslam. The clean pin and the ease with which it was picked up was surprising, but just in case you had forgotten, Kane drilled this big win home with a further Chokeslam as well as a Tombstone Piledriver.

Naturally, Kane went back to the casket once more, only to find The Undertaker inside. Taker looked at his brother, before turning to Rey. At this point, we thought he was singling out the masked man, as he said, 'did you ever hear of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?' Before.. before I make things right.. why? Why'd you do it, Rey?" Mysterio's response was inaudible, unfortunately, but it was all a swerve anyway -- The Phenom swung around and stared menacingly at Kane. He slapped a choke on his apparent attacker, but was hit back and ended up on the receiving end of a Tombstone.

Much like everything else on this PPV, there were good and bad things about this particular angle. First off, I doubt anyone was truly surprised by The Undertaker's return -- one way or another, he was coming back at SS. The way WWE went about it was slightly confusing though. Why did Taker confront Rey in the manner he did if he wasn't the attacker? Was it just for the swerve or did Rey have something to do with it after all? I guess we'll find out more on Smackdown! this coming Friday.

It was also important to make Kane look superior in the way they did. People have to believe that he can beat his brother, as he has been made to look inferior in past feuds, but above all else it's believable -- having just awoken from a storyline coma (notice how he staggers out of the casket), Taker would be susceptible to any competitor, not just a monster heel. There was nothing particularly special about this match or the events immediately after it.

Taker and Kane partake in a choking war

Aaaaand your main event!
The heavily hyped 7-on-7 elimination tag team match between Team WWE (as advertised -- John Cena, Bret Hart, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth and an unconfirmed seventh member) and The Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, David Otunga, Skip Sheffield, Heath Slater, Darren Young and Michael Tarver).

After his awesome promo earlier in the night, it had looked as if The Miz was certain to be that seventh member. But just as Team WWE had made their way to ringside with Miz in the wings in anticipation, John Cena brought out Daniel Bryan in one of those very rare moments in pro wrestling these days -- something that you simply don't see coming.

Cue huge pop, melee in the ring and a crossface from Bryan on Young, thus forcing a submission in the early moments of the 14-man crunch match. The American Dragon didn't reenter the squared circle until Team WWE were down to just himself and Cena, but when he did, he absolutely kicked ass until The Miz ran in and hit him with the briefcase. It's amazing that Michael Cole continues to bury him on commentary. This was a performance good enough to win even the harshest critics over, so to continue on insisting that AmDrag "got lucky" in this bout, that all his in-ring capabilities were conjured up by the Internet and that he is a "dweeb" and a "twerp" is incredibly baffling. Perhaps taking the US title off of his former Pro would change Cole's mind...?

In the final sequence, John Cena was left in a two-on-one situation against Gabriel and Barrett. Gabriel went for the win with his ever-impressive 450 Splash, but Cena moved out of harm's way and subsequently pinned the South African, which looked weak. So did the finish, however, when Barrett tapped out to the NPSTF (No Pressure Stepover Toehold Footlock). All in all, a fairly entertaining match where arguably it's only downfall was in the ending.

This PPV was stuck in an unfotunate pattern. On the whole it was an enjoyable event with good matches. However, nearly all of those matches were marred by sloppy or poor finishes. As I wrote before, the viewer needs a reason in every single match to buy the PPV.